Alabama

On December 14, 1819, Alabama became the twenty-second state in the Union. It was originally part of Georgia and it was heavily disputed because it had no coast.

Alabama was one of the biggest slave states. The soil was very fertile and it was an excellent place to grow cotton. It soon became one of the richest states in the Union. In 1860, enslaved African-Americans comprised 45% of the population of Alabama. There were only a little over two thousand free white men living in Alabama.

Alabama joined the Confederate States of America in January 1861, however very few battles were actually fought there. Alabama did contribute many soldiers to the Confederate Army, almost 120,000. After the Civil War, the state still relied heavily on its cotton and farming. Many laws against African-Americans were put into place thanks to the KKK and other white supremacist groups.

Problems persisted for blacks in Alabama until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After 1972 many of the white voters shifted from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party, and the state is now primarily right wing. In 2010, Republicans won control of both houses of legislature for the first time in 136 years.